NEW YORK (AP) — Comcast, which became a TV powerhouse by signing up Generation Xers, baby boomers and their parents, now is fighting for millennial eyeballs.

The TV giant is investing in online media outlets like BuzzFeed and Vox that attract young viewers. It's setting up a streaming TV service for millennials who don't watch a boob tube. And it's developing a YouTube-like video app and website.

Insurance giant Progressive Corp. announced Monday plans to hire 193 sales representatives and claims adjusters for its Colorado Springs call center by the end of the year. The company, which employs 1,200 in the call center and 400 more in an information technology operation at the same location, said the jobs are a mix of new positions and hires to replace employees who have left Progressive. The call center has added 375 jobs in the past 10 months.

Two Colorado Springs startups combined to land $6.83 million in venture capital during the second quarter of 2015, the most funding invested in local firms since late 2012, while both state and national venture investment surged to the highest levels in more than a decade.

The Colorado Springs-area job market in May was little changed from April as the unemployment rate remained at 5.3 percent and payrolls grew moderately from May 2014, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. The local jobless rate has hovered between 5.1 percent and 5.3 percent since October. The May rate is down from 6.3 percent in May 2014.

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird. It's a plane. It's.an aerostat - a product born in the Colorado Springs area that's flying high above Interstate 25 in north Denver. For three days this week, the Colorado Department of Transportation is testing one of SkySentry LLC's aerostats, a helium-filled cross between a balloon and kite, to monitor traffic from 400 feet above I-25. If the idea flies, it will help the 12-year-old company continue its shift away from its defense contracting roots.

Colorado Springs-based defense contractors Boecore Inc. and Summit Technical Solutions LLC, plus two out-of-state companies, will share a five-year, $496 million contract under which they will compete to win orders for specific tasks from the Army Space and Missile Defense Command and other military units.

A little more than year after it was formed through the merger of two groups that help budding entrepreneurs in Colorado Springs, Peak Startup will soon hire its first paid staff member and plans to add a full-time executive director by September. The 800-member group plans to hire a part-time program coordinator by July 1 to help organize and support its 100-plus annual events, which range from monthly pitch nights to a week-long celebration of startups and entrepreneurship, said Chris Franz, Peak Startup's president. The position, posted on the group's website - peakstartup.org/jobs - calls for 10 to ...

After spending most of its 19 years focusing on building high-end computers for military and intelligence use, SRC Computers LLC of Colorado Springs will introduce its first commercial product Thursday: a server component for Hewlett-Packard Co. that's designed to process data more quickly while using less energy.

A company that uses sophisticated equipment to create molds for manufacturers and another firm whose expertise in data and engineering has been used by the Department of Defense were among several local businesses honored Friday during the annual Celebrate Technology awards ceremony in Colorado Springs. High Performance Engineering won the emerging venture award for using computer-aided design and manufacturing equipment to design and produce plastic molds for manufacturers.

It's not quite as impressive as the headquarters for Apple or Google, but Cherwell Software LLC's new home in the InterQuest Corporate Campus will be a big step up for the fast-growing company.

Cherwell, which been looking for more than a year for a campus to accommodate its rapid growth, has subleased 67,000 square feet in the InterQuest campus, 10125 Federal Drive, from computer storage manufacturer Quantum Corp. and will move its headquarters there by August, said Jason Haggar, Cherwell's vice president of marketing.

It may be in its infancy, but a 6-month-old Colorado Springs construction company is good enough to have bested thousands of other companies in a nationwide competition sponsored by Comcast.

IiCON Construction Group LLC is among 32 small businesses nationwide to be named regional winners in Comcast Business' "Innovations 4 Entrepreneurs" competition. The public is now being asked to vote to winnow down the list to six grand-prize winners.

A small group of volunteers spent two years realizing their dream of a "makerspace" where entrepreneurs can develop, improve and eventually manufacture products, and hopes to eventually create several more in southern Colorado.

Colorado's burgeoning aerospace economy will continue to boom, the state's top cheerleader for the industry predicts.

Jay Lindell, a retired Air Force general who works for the state's Office of Economic Development and International Trade, said even as government budgets are squeezed, businesses are leaping into orbit.

"There's more commercial development and growing international capabilities for aerospace in Colorado," Lindell said.

CertainSafe, a Colorado Springs-based cybersecurity firm, has formed a partnership with MicroTech, a Virginia-based technology and government contractor, that could produce more than $10 million in revenue for the two buisnesses.

A fledgling Colorado Springs company, iDro, hopes that the third time will be the charm for winning Colorado College's Big Idea business plan competition.

Headed by CC senior Fredrik Lindseth, the hydroponics/aquaponics company has been a finalist in all three of the previous competitions, winning the third-place prize of $2,000 in 2013 under the name CityRoots.

Colorado College senior Fredrik Lindseth and his iDro, a company he co-founded to develop a smartphone application that helps people grow their own food, won the Colorado University Startup Challenge Monday at the Angel Capital Summit in Denver.

The Colorado Economic Development Commission has approved $2.74 million in state income tax credits over three years to attract an information technology platform company to Colorado Springs. The company would hire 180 employees earning an average annual salary of $54,000.

The commission didn't name the company, and approved the incentive Thursday under the name "Project Belt."

Just four months after joining the board of X-IO Technologies, Bill Miller has become executive chairman of Colorado Springs-based computer storage manufacturer.

The technology industry veteran took over the post last month from John Beletic, who remains on X-IO's board and is now vice chairman. Miller took over management at the company's headquarters so CEO Brian Owen can focus on customers and partners.

Prime Health Collaborative, a Centennial-based group that works to build links between Colorado's technology and health care industries, will meet next month in Colorado Springs to expand those efforts to southern Colorado.

NEW YORK (AP) — IBM's CEO says the company's plan to revamp its business to shift away from hardware and focus on business analytics, cloud computing, mobile services and security is on track.

In a media briefing ahead of an investor conference in New York on Thursday, Virginia Rometty said the company plans that the new tech markets should make up 40 percent of IBM's business, or $40 billion, in the next 4 years. That's up from 13 percent five years ago and 27 percent by the end of this year.

Atmel Corp. said Wednesday it will sell or shut down its XSense product line in Colorado Springs, just 15 months after introducing it with great fanfare at its local manufacturing plant.

XSense, which was designed to be used in smartphones, tablets and other touchscreen devices, was the first product made at the local plant besides semiconductors in the 25 years the California-based company has owned the facility.